senator, let's get right into it. you just heard the chairs of the intelligence committees on benghazi. bottom line point, did director petraeus call this terrorism from the get go? they say yes. they don't understand why the administration didn't call it the same two days later. how do you react? >> well, i think one of the reasons that susan rice told the story she did, if the truth came out a few weeks before the election, that our consulate in benghazi, libya, had been overrun by an al qaeda-sponsored militia, that destroys the thinking that al qaeda is dead, bin laden is dead. susan rice did not say it was the result of a mob spawned by a cairo. she said i want to remind the american people this president promised to go after bin laden, refocus on al qaeda. he got bin laden. al qaeda has been dismantled. and the truth of the matter nothing could have been further from the truth, and the story she told reinforced a political narrative helpful to the president. but disconnected from reality. >> let's be clear about